Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Republican leaders in the State Assembly joined their Democratic counterparts for a bi-partisan roll out of BayBio:IMPACT 2008 in Sacramento on January 15, the second date of three events planned for the report’s launch. Executives from BayBio member companies provided valuable commentary on the state of Northern California’s life sciences industry to attendees at the launch events in San Francisco, Sacramento and Washington D.C.

InterMune CEO Dan Welch and AvidBiotics Chairman Dr. David Martin spoke to a standing room-only audience in San Francisco on January 10. Cytokinetics CEO Robert Blum and Presidio Pharmaceuticals Founder Antoun Nabhan stood before elected officials, policy makers and legislative staffers in Sacramento on January 15. The final launch event is set for January 23. Genomic Health President Kim Popovits will join OncoMed CEO Paul Hastings to speak before the California Democratic Delegation.

The IMPACT report highlights Northern California’s important role as the home of the world’s largest life sciences sector, housing at least one-third of the industry. Northern California currently markets 408 innovative life-saving drugs and technologies and the pipeline has expanded nearly 25 percent in the past year, with more than 492 products in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials. There are more products in later-stage clinical trials in Northern California than anywhere else in the world. At a time of extraordinary growth, the life sciences industry faces a host of policy challenges that threaten its viability in California and nationally.

The current tax climate puts the state at risk of losing highly educated talent, lucrative companies and their facilities to other emerging national hubs, or other countries. The industry needs support from state and local governments in an effort to keep jobs, companies and facilities in California. Participants at each launch urged policy makers to focus on legislation that recognizes that life sciences do not fit the same old business model of other sectors. BayBio provided policy makers and legislators with a 12-Point Action Plan to reinforce BayBio:IMPACT 2008.